Infernus
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." ''- The legendary inscription atop the Gates of Hell. '''Infernus', also called Hell, the Pits of Fire, and the Nine-Fold Kingdom, is a dark world located within the reality of Mundus. Infernus is a place of suffering, chaos, and torment, where corrupted spirits known as daemons roam and rule, and cause pain to damned souls. Infernus is divided into Nine Realms, or Circles, which are designed to house the souls guilty of committing sins against Creation and the Divines. These realms in order of descent are: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. Each of these realms is separate from the other and each is governed by a Duke and a provincial government of daemons. All of these Dukes however, must answer to the Lord of Infernus, Satan. Though Anurel himself loathes to punish mortals, his fallen angel Satan covets the stained souls of mortals and gladly uses his daemonic powers to claim the souls of these beings, where they will face his hatred. Legends say that during the Rebellion in Heaven, when Satan gathered armies of angels to attempt overthrowing Anurel, they were defeated and the God of Righteousness threw the traitor angel out of Paradise, into a prison of fire and ash - and Infernus was created. To this day, Satan remains in this realm of sin - trapped, but exerting his will through the realms of Mundus. The Nine Realms The realm of Inferunus is divided into nine distinct kingdoms which are meant to each embody a single deadly sin and house the souls judged by King Minos. The realm is organized into "circles" which descend the further into Hell one travels - becoming more nightmarish with each circle. The circles are divided as follows in descending order: - Limbo, the Circle of the Faithless and Pagans. While Limbo is not by comparison a place of suffering, it is a desolate landscape that houses the ones who were virtuous in life but did not acknowledge the Divines' holiness. This circle is ruled over by King Minos, who also judges the deeds of stained souls and consigns them to their fates. - Lust, the Circle where the sinfully lustful suffer. Lust is a craggy wasteland in which constant, incredibly strong storms blow the cursed souls around and are forced to eternally suffer in the violent winds which crush them against mountains or tear their bodies. This circle is ruled and terrorized by Lilith, Queen of Harpies, who soars through the storms to catch souls in her talons and rip them apart, only for them to be reborn and suffer all over again. - Gluttony, the Circle where the overindulgent and sloth are punished. Gluttony is a putrid land of viscous sludge and freezing rains, where the cursed souls lie upon the ground immobile, trapped and slowly sinking in their own filth, as the rains shower them in horrible cold. This circle is ruled by Azmodan, Duke of Gluttons, who walks upon the sludge fields and laughs at the cursed souls as they suffer, and often making a meal of them when hungry. - Greed, the Circle where the ones who valued possessions and hoarding above kindness suffer. Greed is a land of iron and lakes of boiling gold, where the tainted souls often are trapped in. Other souls must work on iron constructs which dot the land, in exchange for nothing. The cold iron reminds them of how cold the cursed were in life, and the boiling gold is a testament of the pains of avarice. This realm is ruled by a daemon known as Plutus, who resembles a many-headed dragon. - Anger, the Circle where the furious and hateful endure punishment. Anger is a realm of burning lava fields and the hottest fires in Existence. Here the damned burn eternally within the lakes of fire and lava, and are kicked or thrown back into the lakes by daemons should they try to flee. This realm is ruled over by a mighty daemon known as Trigon, whom rules from a palace atop a mountain of skulls, where he watches the angry burn, and will often indulge in violence against the damned souls for his own pleasure. - Heresy, the Circle where those who denied or renounced the Divines face torment. The halls of Heresy resemble the cruelest and most twisted factory of torture imaginable. Here, the souls of those who worshipped the Dark Gods, the Void or other unholy beings, are nailed to strange metal contraptions and tortured in horrid ways, or are trapped in flaming tombs which burn with fires beyond anything in the mortal realms. Heresy's infernal factories always echo with screams. This circle is lorded over by Baphomet, a gaunt, goat-headed demon with a flaming crown, who gives sermons so vile that the sound of his voice causes the listener incredible physical and mental pain. History Category:Locations